hit a kerb hard!

[vicount]

well yesterday afternoon i smacked my fabia off a kerb at about 20 mph, hit front and back wheels (passenger side) and blew both tyres, buckled both wheels bad, any ways she seems to be pulling to the left a little, i imagine my tracking is well off but what other damage do i need to consider?:confused:

[yegnold]

Wishbone may be slightly bent in which case it would make handling strange and unpredictable

[thewilfmeister]

i did this only a few months after first buying my vrs!

it caused my powersteering to mess up and the pump to blow and the car had to have new wishbone new bumper, foglight and radiator. hopefully though yours wont be as bad!

[Sy.]

You might have bent the front strut too

[TokyoPhil]

Get the tracking checked - make sure that when they set it that your steering wheel is set to the 'straight on' position.

While their under there, ask the guy to have a look to see if anything is bent.

[vicount]

im dropping it in tomo morning to see whats what, will post the damage soon as i know better, thanks guys!

Edited 28 January, 2009 by vicount

[TokyoPhil]

The good thing is that if you have bent something like a lower arm they are relatively cheap (approx £50) and shouldn't cost much in labour to be fitted either.

[yegnold]

How did you get on, vicount?

[vicount]

i got away lightly guys, local quick fit popped it up on the lift while i was standing there, checked it out, no damage just needed wheel aligning and tracking and balance sorted, cost me 40 yo yos,

[Guest westallc]

what the hell are you letting kwick fit look at it for they no sod all not even mechanics go to a proper garage mate safety first

[KenONeill]

:iagree:

Also AIUI you ripped both tyres yes? I'll bet KwikKr@p didn't check the rear wheel alignment, that the beam isn't bent, or the rear axle thrust axis, did they? All they did was the front toe setting?

[cjb]

:iagree:

Also AIUI you ripped both tyres yes? I'll bet KwikKr@p didn't check the rear wheel alignment, that the beam isn't bent, or the rear axle thrust axis, did they? All they did was the front toe setting?

:iagree: too.

[fluffmeister]

:iagree: Three, You can't get ****ter than a quick **** fitter

[TokyoPhil]

I guess ideally you'd want a full laser alignment check to make sure everything is 100% but I very much doubt any Kwik-fit has that kind or gear.

What's it drive like now that it's sorted??

[mannyo]

If the tracking was OK before you hit the kerb, then something is most definatly bent. The nuts used to adjust the tracking wont mysteriously move on their own. They may have been able to get the alignment right again, but the bent part is still there and would have been weekened by the impact. The bend would only have to be tiny, and could well be unnoticable. Only a proper specialist with the correct alignment tools (4 wheel geometry) will be able to spot it.

As others have said, and having had bad experience of kwik fit in the past I would never let them touch a car of mine again.

[vicount]

If the tracking was OK before you hit the kerb, then something is most definatly bent. The nuts used to adjust the tracking wont mysteriously move on their own. They may have been able to get the alignment right again, but the bent part is still there and would have been weekened by the impact. The bend would only have to be tiny, and could well be unnoticable. Only a proper specialist with the correct alignment tools (4 wheel geometry) will be able to spot it.

As others have said, and having had bad experience of kwik fit in the past I would never let them touch a car of mine again.

Point taken and it seems i will have to go futher and have it re checked, cant have my kids in a car im not sure is road worthy, thanks for all the advice guys,

the only reason i used quick fit was that my local dealers here really really screwed up my car last year, its a long story that i already posted here but they destroyed the engine and had to put a new one in, now i dont have a mechanic as such, i used to get all my work done by my skoda dealer! now i dont trust em, shame too coz i had a FSH from them up to last year.

[KenONeill]

For this job, you're looking for someone who can do a "full geometry check", which may well cost ~£100, but at that price will include adjusting anything that can be be adjusted into tolerance, and a list of anything else that's bent and throwing something out of tolerance. Was I right about what KwitFit actually did and didn't do in post #11?

[rum4mo]

Kwik-Fit do have a few "Carlos Fan Dango" style of places dotted around the country that have proper alignment rigs - I've forgotten the name they go by, but I'd still leave this job to a proper independant VAG specialist that has and can use a proper rig.

Mind you, it was Kwik-Fit that pointed out to me that my daughter's car had a serious alignment problem (O/S -ve camber, N/S +ve camber), instead of just "sorting out " the tracking like I asked them to do! So some of them are awake and sort of honest.

[wheels-inmotion]

It's actually a good thing the tyres blew since this absorbed some of the energy.

Having said that if the Tracking was a long way out it does suggest one of the secondary angles is wrong, namely castor, additionally it's wise to check the steering arm in case this is bent, obviously if it is this would explain the very wrong toe angle.

You need to get an image of the current chassis position, this is done using a full Geometry machine, this will measure the chassis in all three axis X, Y, Z so with a little trigonometry identify any bent components.

Also if needs be the sub-frame and rear beam can be optimised, their anchor points are not as surgical as we a led to believe.